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Sunday, January 11, 2009

Egypt

Greetings from Egypt!

We arrived at the port city of Alexandria and had to be ready to go this morning at death-o-clock. It was a 3 hours drive to Cairo and a 3 hour drive back. Yuck!
We finally arrived, and oh my gosh the pyramids were amazing! I know I've been using that word like crazy on this trip, but everything has been just that, amazing!

We were advised not to go in because it's extremely claustrophobic, less oxygen, pitch black, things like that. Not sure how that would have worked with a baby anyway! We learned so much about Egyptians history. They believe in a lot of magical things, worshipped cats, actually worshiped hundreds of different Gods, all kinds of things.

We also visited the Sphinx, the museum of Egyptian history, and a papyrus institute (where they make paper from reeds). The museum was awesome because it contained all the things taken from the pyramids so we were staring at the originals right there. I learned a lot about King Tut!


When we were outside the museum we heard the Muslim prayer go off. There is mosques on every block like there are Starbucks in the States. Their religion requires them to stop what they are doing and pray 5 times a day. It sounded like a chanting/singing voice. Kind of weird actually... Brad said he heard that all the time in Iraq.

Some things that I could have gone without was the horrible B.O. some man had on our bus. I mean, it smelled like he was sprayed by a B.O. skunk and we all had no choice but to breath B.O. air. Nasty.

The hagglers in Cairo, well, in all Egypt really are way too much for me. They are super aggressive and it's scary They get in your face, forcefully put things in your hand and follow you around. They do not leave you alone. There was one guy who sat on his camel and knocked on my bus window until our bus finally left! 
I was flabbergasted when Brad couldn't take this one particular guy anymore and just started to talking to him Arabic! He was actually carrying on a conversation with this guy! I guess that's what many tours in Iraq does to you. I was impressed.

I will write more about Egypt at home. We are here another day and plan on visiting the city our boat is docked at, Alexandria. Hopefully the hagglers will take it easy on us!


Brad, Miles and I in front of the Sphinx (foreground) and Cheops, the Great Pyramid (background).

3 comments:

The Letteer Family said...

How amazing! And so cool Brad! Katy you crack me up with all your skunk B.O. comments! Too funny!

Becki said...

I have just LOVED reading your updates from your trip! And the pictures are just unbelievable! That is really neat that Brad could speak to the people there...you will have to blog more about each place when you get back b/c I get on here each day JUST to see your pics :)

Rachel Baker said...

Wow Wow Wow!!! How amazing AND funny are you! That picture is great b/c it looks like Miles is much too interested in the pyramids to be bothered with a photo. Love your updates.